The present invention relates to measuring trust in response to, or associated with, receipt of a message. More specifically, the invention relates to assessing factors associated with the message and producing a tangible prediction measurement reflective of a trust measurement for the message.
With the emergence of social media, unprecedented speed and reach has been attained in the creation and dissemination of information. Social media on many levels replaces or has replaced traditional sources, such as newspaper and radio. As a result social media has developed into an increasingly important channel to engage and influence people.
Social media has become commonplace for information campaigns. Current research focuses on how an individual perceives the credibility of received messages in terms of an expressed trust antecedent, such as competence, benevolence, and integrity. Attention is on the trustworthiness of the messages, which includes characteristics of the messages and that of their creators or senders. However, the trust employed therein does not account for underpinnings of trust, and therefore, takes a simplistic, one-dimensional, and therefore limited view of trust.